In May, the AICC had signaled that elevation of Rahul as Congress president was independent of the party suffering a debacle in the Assembly elections. Only last month, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh had said that "Rahul Gandhi is de facto Congress chief but he should become de jure."

Ramesh wanted Rahul to take over the presidentship and make the party battle-ready without waiting for anti-incumbency to build up against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Making a strong pitch for Rahul's leadership, Ramesh had said "uncertainty does not help".

He had maintained that the challenges faced by Congress were akin to those that prevailed when Sonia Gandhi had taken over the party in March 1998.

Party leaders have been saying that the Congress vice president has lot of ideas on organisational restructuring. Rahul was made the Congress vice president at the Jaipur chintan shivir in January 2013 held ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Gandhi has been active in politics after he became a member of the Lok Sabha in May 2004 from Amethi, a seat once represented by his father and late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.